New Delhi: The Supreme Court has criticised the attitude of some courts to award lenient sentences to persons convicted of heinous crimes taking note of the long passage of time from when the offence was actually committed.

"Long pendency of a matter by itself could not justify lesser punishment," a Bench comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat said in a recent judgement enhancing the sentence of four found guilty of murder charges.

The High Court had sentenced them to two-years imprisonment taking into account the fact that the assault on the deceased had taken place in 1981. However, the apex court enhanced their sentence to six years allowing an appeal of the Madhya Pradesh government.

Discussing in detail the effect of leniency shown by courts in such cases, Justice Pasayat, writing for the Bench, said, "Undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system. To undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law and society could not long endure under such serious threats."

He said that imposition of sentence without considering its effect on the social order in many cases may be in reality a futile exercise.

"The social impact of the crime, eg where it related to offences against women, dacoity, kidnapping, misappropriation of public money, treason and other offences involving moral turpitude or moral delinquency which have great impact on social order, and public interest, cannot be appropriate punishment in a criminal trial," he said.

PTI